Way back when, I created a war-based mechanic named encircle, which was an activated ability of some sort. But, I can't remember if it was templated as <Cost>: Effect or Encircle <Cost> with on-attack payment option. I've revived the ability and reworked it so it affects creatures and 'walkers. Does it work better as a keyword ability or action? I'm, open to feedback on the cards as well.
Ability
Llanowar Patrol 1G
Creature — Elf Warrior {C}
Encircle (Whenever two or more creatures with this ability attack or block the same permanent, that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn, if it’s a creature, or remove a loyalty counter from that permanent, if it’s a planeswalker.)
1/2
Action
Ranger-General 2GGG
Creature — Elf Warrior {R}
Whenever Ranger-General attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature you control, that permanent becomes encircled. (It gets -1/-1 until end of turn, if it’s a creature, or remove a loyalty counter from it, if it’s a planeswalker.)
5/5
The route that you want to go with this ability depends on what you want to do with it. The keyword ability version lets you create cards that care about creatures that have the ability via tutors, lords, and other forms of keyword tribal effects. It also matters when it comes to either being removed from creatures via "lose all abilities" effects or being granted to creatures by auras, equipment, or continuous effects. It's also the easier to grok out of the two due to taking up less textbox space. The main disadvantage of the keyword ability route is that your mechanic is highly parasitic, that it, it does nothing without controlling multiple creatures that have the ability.
The keyword action version is clunkier due to requiring more text space, but, in exchange, you gain more flexibility. A keyword action can be attached to both activated and triggered abilities, and it can have a variety of trigger conditions. It can also be used with noncreature spells and abilities, which expands the number of cards that work with it. You can also have triggered abilities that care about when the keyword action is applied, such as what Surveil had in Guilds of Ravnica. Unfortunately, the fairly rigid flavor and associated timing restriction you've assigned to Encircle acts as a dampener to that flexibility. Still, that fact that you've expanded the keyword action version to any multi-block or multi-attack on a planeswalker, regardless of how many creatures actually care about Encircle, removes the parasitism, which makes it much better imo.
A
Llanowar Patrol 1G
Creature — Elf Warrior {C}
Encircle (Whenever attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature you control, that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn, if it’s a creature, or remove a loyalty counter from that permanent, if it’s a planeswalker.)
1/2
—702-COM.1 While Magic’s Community has thought of these abilities, the totality of rule 702.1 applies to them as well.
—702-COM.2 Encircle
——702-COM.2a Encircle is a static ability that represents two similar triggered abilities. Encircle means "Whenever this creature attacks the same planeswalker as another ceature you control, remove a loyalty counter from that planeswalker," and "whenever this creature blocks the same creature as another creature you control, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn."
——702-COM.2b Multiple instances of encircle on the same creature are redundant.
B1
Ranger-General 2GGG
Creature — Elf Warrior {R}
Encircle (Remove a loyalty counter from planeswalkers this creature team attacks, and creatures this creature team blocks get -1/-1 until end of turn.)
5/5
Definition:
Team attacking or -blocking is attacking or blocking the same permanent with two or more creatures.
702-COM Community/custom Keyword Abilities
—702-COM.1 While Magic’s Community has thought of these abilities, the totality of rule 702.1 applies to them as well.
—702-COM.2 Envelop
——702-COM.2a Envelop represents two similar static abilities. Envelop means "Remove a loyalty counter from planeswalkers this creature team attacks," and "creatures this creature team blocks get -1/-1 until end of turn."
——702-COM.2b Multiple instances of envelop on the same creature are redundant.
Team attack/block was chosen because multi-block could be confused with blocking an additional creature.
Team attack/block would be explained to mean what's spelled out in the card above.
B2
Ranger-General 2GGG
Creature — Elf Warrior {R}
Encircle (Whenever this creature team attacks or team blocks a permanent, that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn, if it’s a creature, or remove a loyalty counter from it, if it’s a planeswalker.)
5/5
Definition:
Team attacking or -blocking is attacking or blocking the same permanent with two or more creatures.
702-COM Community/custom Keyword Abilities
—702-COM.1 While Magic’s Community has thought of these abilities, the totality of rule 702.1 applies to them as well.
—702-COM.2 Surround
——702-COM.2a Surround is a static ability that represents two similar triggered abilities. Surround means "Whenever this creature team attacks a planeswalker, remove a loyalty counter from that planeswalker," and "whenever this creature team blocks a creature, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn."
——702-COM.2b Multiple instances of surround on the same creature are redundant.
B1/2 because the above card led directly to this one.
For A, I'm concerned about the poor communication of the ability's non-redundancy clause in the reminder text. The fact that Encircle is a triggered ability lends itself to stacking by default because normal triggered abilities will all work independently if multiple instances appear on the same creature. Sometimes triggered abilities have elements that inherently deactivate stacking by potentially triggering multiple times and only functioning once, such as mechanics that track cards between zone like persist and undying, but there's nothing here that suggests that. As-written, Encircle stacks when it appears on multiple creatures that all block something together or attack the same planeswalker, which makes a non-redundancy clause buried in the comp. rules even more confusing.
For B1 and B2, I think the Team Attack terminology has a lot of value in something like Battlebond, where the 2HG environment makes it more relevant, but otherwise it's just another layer that players have to learn in a mechanic that is already more complex that it appears at first glance. Between being an ability that does two entirely different things in two entirely different situations and the weirdness associated with being a non-redundant triggered ability, Encircle pushes the complexity envelope even before renaming certain actions.
I really do not like that B1 is essentially a triggered ability with the serial numbers filed off. You've taken the functionality normally given to triggered abilities and crammed it into a static ability. The result feels extremely wrong in an indescribable way, like when people try to slap special action status onto things for no good reason or have otherwise normal activated abilities that add mana to take advantage of the privileges of being a mana ability. It's actually somewhat nauseating.
B2 is better, but it still has that phantom non-redundancy clause.
Double envelop
Ranger-General 2G
Creature — Elf Warrior {R}
Double envelop (Whenever this creature blocks the same creature as at least one other creature you control, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. This ability only triggers once for each creature that becomes blocked.)
3/2
—702-COM.1 While Magic’s Community has thought of these abilities, the totality of rule 702.1 applies to them as well.
—702-COM.2 Double envelop
——702-COM.2a Double envelop is a triggered ability. Double envelop means "whenever this creature blocks the same creature as at least one other creature you control, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn," and "this ability only triggers once for each creature that becomes blocked."
——702-COM.2b If multiple creatures with double envelop block the same creature, that creature only gets -1/-1 until end of turn through double envelop.
——702-COM.2c Multiple instances of double envelop on the same creature are redundant.
Surround
Llanowar Patrol 1G
Creature — Elf Warrior {C}
Surround (Whenever this creature attacks the same planeswalker as at least one other creature you control, remove a loyalty counter from that planeswalker. This ability only triggers once for each planeswalker you attack.)
1/2
—702-COM.3a Surround is a triggered ability. Surround means "Whenever this creature attacks the same planeswalker as at least one other creature you control, remove a loyalty counter from that planeswalker," and "this ability only triggers once for each planeswalker you attack."
—702-COM.3b If multiple creatures with surround attack the same planeswalker, only one loyalty counter is removed from that planeswalker by surround.
—702-COM.3c Multiple instances of surround on the same creature are redundant.
What's wrong with: "(Whenever this attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature you control, remove a loyalty counter from the attacked or blocked permanent and it gets -1/-1 until end of turn.)"?
Or even better: "(Whenever this attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature, you may remove a counter from the attacked or blocked permanent and that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn.)"
Abilities do as much as possible and outside of custom cards only creatures and Vehicles have p/t and most of the time only planeswalkers have loyalty counters - and if a creature has a loyalty counter, removing them is not an issue. I actually think removing any type of counter if you see fit to do so is the better option since it interacts with quite a few mechanics that use +1/+1 counters.
On another note: I think the best way to do this mechanic is actually with damage since that's a unified way to attack loyalty counters and creature toughneess i. e. "(Whenever this creature attacks or blocks a the same permanent as another creature [you control], this creatule deals 1 damage to that permanent.)"
Private Mod Note
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
What's wrong with: "(Whenever this attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature you control, remove a loyalty counter from the attacked or blocked permanent and it gets -1/-1 until end of turn.)"?
Or even better: "(Whenever this attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature, you may remove a counter from the attacked or blocked permanent and that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn.)"
Abilities do as much as possible and outside of custom cards only creatures and Vehicles have p/t and most of the time only planeswalkers have loyalty counters - and if a creature has a loyalty counter, removing them is not an issue. I actually think removing any type of counter if you see fit to do so is the better option since it interacts with quite a few mechanics that use +1/+1 counters.
On another note: I think the best way to do this mechanic is actually with damage since that's a unified way to attack loyalty counters and creature toughness i. e. "(Whenever this creature attacks or blocks a the same permanent as another creature [you control], this creature deals 1 damage to that permanent.)"
Great ideas! But, I should've mentioned the split came about because none is perfect on both offense and defense. If I reunify them, it'd, likely, be with the second wording because my autism says covering all avenues is the best option, even though Gideon Blackblade's the only card that satisfies both parts at the moment.
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Ability
Llanowar Patrol 1G
Creature — Elf Warrior {C}
Encircle (Whenever two or more creatures with this ability attack or block the same permanent, that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn, if it’s a creature, or remove a loyalty counter from that permanent, if it’s a planeswalker.)
1/2
Action
Ranger-General 2GGG
Creature — Elf Warrior {R}
Whenever Ranger-General attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature you control, that permanent becomes encircled. (It gets -1/-1 until end of turn, if it’s a creature, or remove a loyalty counter from it, if it’s a planeswalker.)
5/5
The keyword action version is clunkier due to requiring more text space, but, in exchange, you gain more flexibility. A keyword action can be attached to both activated and triggered abilities, and it can have a variety of trigger conditions. It can also be used with noncreature spells and abilities, which expands the number of cards that work with it. You can also have triggered abilities that care about when the keyword action is applied, such as what Surveil had in Guilds of Ravnica. Unfortunately, the fairly rigid flavor and associated timing restriction you've assigned to Encircle acts as a dampener to that flexibility. Still, that fact that you've expanded the keyword action version to any multi-block or multi-attack on a planeswalker, regardless of how many creatures actually care about Encircle, removes the parasitism, which makes it much better imo.
A
Llanowar Patrol 1G
Creature — Elf Warrior {C}
Encircle (Whenever attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature you control, that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn, if it’s a creature, or remove a loyalty counter from that permanent, if it’s a planeswalker.)
1/2
—702-COM.2 Encircle
——702-COM.2a Encircle is a static ability that represents two similar triggered abilities. Encircle means "Whenever this creature attacks the same planeswalker as another ceature you control, remove a loyalty counter from that planeswalker," and "whenever this creature blocks the same creature as another creature you control, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn."
——702-COM.2b Multiple instances of encircle on the same creature are redundant.
B1
Ranger-General 2GGG
Creature — Elf Warrior {R}
Encircle (Remove a loyalty counter from planeswalkers this creature team attacks, and creatures this creature team blocks get -1/-1 until end of turn.)
5/5
Team attacking or -blocking is attacking or blocking the same permanent with two or more creatures.
702-COM Community/custom Keyword Abilities
—702-COM.1 While Magic’s Community has thought of these abilities, the totality of rule 702.1 applies to them as well.
—702-COM.2 Envelop
——702-COM.2a Envelop represents two similar static abilities. Envelop means "Remove a loyalty counter from planeswalkers this creature team attacks," and "creatures this creature team blocks get -1/-1 until end of turn."
——702-COM.2b Multiple instances of envelop on the same creature are redundant.
B2
Ranger-General 2GGG
Creature — Elf Warrior {R}
Encircle (Whenever this creature team attacks or team blocks a permanent, that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn, if it’s a creature, or remove a loyalty counter from it, if it’s a planeswalker.)
5/5
Team attacking or -blocking is attacking or blocking the same permanent with two or more creatures.
702-COM Community/custom Keyword Abilities
—702-COM.1 While Magic’s Community has thought of these abilities, the totality of rule 702.1 applies to them as well.
—702-COM.2 Surround
——702-COM.2a Surround is a static ability that represents two similar triggered abilities. Surround means "Whenever this creature team attacks a planeswalker, remove a loyalty counter from that planeswalker," and "whenever this creature team blocks a creature, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn."
——702-COM.2b Multiple instances of surround on the same creature are redundant.
For B1 and B2, I think the Team Attack terminology has a lot of value in something like Battlebond, where the 2HG environment makes it more relevant, but otherwise it's just another layer that players have to learn in a mechanic that is already more complex that it appears at first glance. Between being an ability that does two entirely different things in two entirely different situations and the weirdness associated with being a non-redundant triggered ability, Encircle pushes the complexity envelope even before renaming certain actions.
I really do not like that B1 is essentially a triggered ability with the serial numbers filed off. You've taken the functionality normally given to triggered abilities and crammed it into a static ability. The result feels extremely wrong in an indescribable way, like when people try to slap special action status onto things for no good reason or have otherwise normal activated abilities that add mana to take advantage of the privileges of being a mana ability. It's actually somewhat nauseating.
B2 is better, but it still has that phantom non-redundancy clause.
Double envelop
Ranger-General 2G
Creature — Elf Warrior {R}
Double envelop (Whenever this creature blocks the same creature as at least one other creature you control, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. This ability only triggers once for each creature that becomes blocked.)
3/2
—702-COM.2 Double envelop
——702-COM.2a Double envelop is a triggered ability. Double envelop means "whenever this creature blocks the same creature as at least one other creature you control, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn," and "this ability only triggers once for each creature that becomes blocked."
——702-COM.2b If multiple creatures with double envelop block the same creature, that creature only gets -1/-1 until end of turn through double envelop.
——702-COM.2c Multiple instances of double envelop on the same creature are redundant.
Surround
Llanowar Patrol 1G
Creature — Elf Warrior {C}
Surround (Whenever this creature attacks the same planeswalker as at least one other creature you control, remove a loyalty counter from that planeswalker. This ability only triggers once for each planeswalker you attack.)
1/2
—702-COM.3b If multiple creatures with surround attack the same planeswalker, only one loyalty counter is removed from that planeswalker by surround.
—702-COM.3c Multiple instances of surround on the same creature are redundant.
Or even better: "(Whenever this attacks or blocks the same permanent as another creature, you may remove a counter from the attacked or blocked permanent and that permanent gets -1/-1 until end of turn.)"
Abilities do as much as possible and outside of custom cards only creatures and Vehicles have p/t and most of the time only planeswalkers have loyalty counters - and if a creature has a loyalty counter, removing them is not an issue. I actually think removing any type of counter if you see fit to do so is the better option since it interacts with quite a few mechanics that use +1/+1 counters.
On another note: I think the best way to do this mechanic is actually with damage since that's a unified way to attack loyalty counters and creature toughneess i. e. "(Whenever this creature attacks or blocks a the same permanent as another creature [you control], this creatule deals 1 damage to that permanent.)"
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Great ideas! But, I should've mentioned the split came about because none is perfect on both offense and defense. If I reunify them, it'd, likely, be with the second wording because my autism says covering all avenues is the best option, even though Gideon Blackblade's the only card that satisfies both parts at the moment.